Sunday, August 7, 2016

MUMMY STORY GIVEAWAY

I have just
released a short story, Death on Display,
on Amazon Kindle. The premise: “An
archaeologist and physician recreate an Egyptian mummy using a modern cadaver
and ancient embalming methods. Then they put the finished mummy on display at an
international conference reception...what could possibly go wrong?”

This
story is a tribute to the most fascinating conference I ever attended, the
World Congress on Mummy Studies. Where else can you hear about a waxwork on display out west that
turned out to be a mummy, or “piggies in peat” (experimental animal
mummification using piglets in peat bogs in Europe)? I can truthfully say I
attended more papers than I usually do because I was absolutely mesmerized with
the subject matter.

The first session was on the ethics of
mummies—both the study of dead bodies and the display of them. The concept of
stakeholder theory was introduced: who are the stakeholders in a mummy
display? The scientists, the museum staff, the public, the mummy
itself…and the descendants of the mummy, if they can be identified. And here is
a lesson for the unwary: a protest about a “stuffed Eskimo” in a museum case
incensed Greenlanders until a DNA analysis proved that the body in question was
of Dutch origin. Then, the protesters said it was okay to call it a “stuffed
Dutchman,” just not an Eskimo. But, as we all agreed, it was clearly not
respectful to label any mummy, a dead human being, a “stuffed” anything.

Another session told the story of Mumab, a human
cadaver embalmed Egyptian-style in modern times. This project, a collaboration between Dr. Bob
Brier, an Egyptologist, and Dr. Ronn Wade of the University of Maryland School
of Medicine, tested everything we thought we knew about Egyptian embalming. The
two scientists had a heck of a time getting the necessary permissions to
eviscerate the cadaver, embalm it, and preserve it for posterity. The finished
mummy was eventually loaned to the San Diego Museum of Man, just in time to become the
centerpiece of an exhibit and the star of our Mummy Congress conference
reception.

The bizarre experience of observing a freshly
made mummy in a museum case while sipping white wine with other mummy fans inspired my story, Death on Display. I’m giving away ten
copies on Amazon here over the next two weeks. After that, it
will be only 99 cents.

1 comment:

Sarah's latest novel

"Catacomb," the search for Nazi looted art under Rome

Interview with Sarah Underhill Wisseman

How did you become a writer?My parents read to me when I was very little, and my father wrote two unpublished mysteries after he retired. My university job has always required writing, but I wrote mostly non-fiction until about 1998.

What is your background?I grew up in Evanston, IL and Weston, MA. Since college, I have worked as a museum curator, database manager, conservation lab assistant, field archaeologist, archaeological scientist, cook on an archaeological dig, and dorm mother. I majored in Anthropology as an undergraduate, and that’s when I fell in love with archaeology and museum work.

Your books are about archaeology and museums. Do you have experience in those areas?Yes. I’ve been on archaeological excavations in Israel, Italy, North Carolina, and Nevada. My museum experience began in college when I took a job as a museum guard at the Peabody Museum in Cambridge, Mass. Since then I have worked in five other museums in four different cities in registration, conservation, research, curation, tour-guiding, fund-raising, and database management.

Have you published other books?Yes. Five books of non-fiction on ancient Greek vases, Greek archaeology, scientific methods in archaeology, and Egyptian mummies.

How did you become an archaeologist?During my freshman year in college, a friend handed me a brochure about a summer archaeology program in Israel. I signed up and it changed my life. I went back for a junior year abroad, living in Tel Aviv and digging in the dessert around Beersheva and the Dead Sea area. I completed my graduate work (M.A. and Ph.D) at Bryn Mawr College in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology.

Is “Bound for Eternity” based on real life?Yes. At the University of Illinois, my colleagues and I conducted an investigation of an Egyptian mummy using X-ray, CT scanning, and other non-destructive analyses. I wrote about our results in several technical articles and then in a book for the general public called “The Virtual Mummy” which was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2003. The murder mystery grew out of that experience (of writing the non-fiction book).

Why Boston for your setting?I grew up in a Boston suburb and went to high school and college in that area. Although I have lived in Illinois for over twenty years, I wanted to return home to Boston in my books since it is one of my favorite cities. Also, Cape Cod was my parents’ home after they retired.

Is your museum real?No, but it is based upon a former attic museum at the University of Illinois.

Is “Dead Sea Codex” based on real life?Yes and no. The story and characters are fictional, but the settings of Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, and the site of Masada are real and known to me from nearly two years of living and traveling in Israel in the 1970s.

Dead Sea Codex is a prequel for Bound for Eternity. Do you have plans for future books?Yes. The third book, "The House of the Sphinx," is based on my recent trip to Egypt and will include both archaeology and bioterrorism. “The Fall of Augustus” will be set in Boston again and begins with a death by falling statue. In a later book in the series I plan to move the setting to James Barber’s hospital and create a mystery using my husband’s medical background.

Have you won any awards for your writing?No, but I have placed in a couple of contests: I finaled in the 2004 St. Martin's Press/MALICE DOMESTIC CONTEST for the Best First Traditional Mystery Novel and won third place in the 2004 Leditslip contest for the Best Mystery Novel Proposal

About Me

Sarah Wisseman is a retired professional archaeologist, mystery writer, and painter. She has worked as a researcher and teacher for over thirty years at the University of Illinois. www.sarahwisseman.com